Making a difference and educating our youth.

Establised in 2002 by Katie O Whalen-Elsbree, Fostering Opportunities Scholarships is now a program of the Ocean Beach Community Foundation. As a teacher in the San Diego County Juvenile Court and Community School system, Katie noticed that some of her students, who were in the foster care system, would suddenly stop attending the classes in which they were enrolled.

When a foster youth reached the age of18, they no longer received some of the benefits of the county foster care program. Funding for housing, food and post secondary education was reduced. It seemed as if these young, now adult, students no longer had an adequate financial or community support system. Having raised foster youth, Katie was determined to do something that would offer these students the needed support to attain a secondary education and establish a foundation that would help raise money for these former foster youth to attend college.

Fostering Opportunites Scholarships, a 501(c)(3) non-profit tax-exempt scholarship foundation, is an all volunteer organization managed by an all-volunteer Board of Directors. Its purpose is to expand post secondary educational opportunities for former foster youth in San Diego County.

For more information about Fostering Opportunites Scholarships click here.

50% in the Foster Care system will be homeless as adults 50%

10% in Foster Care go to college 10%

Only 3% of that 10% of Foster Youth actually graduate 3%

That’s the bad news..

This is the good news:

In 13 years with the help from folks like yourself Fostering Opportunities has graduated:

36 students with Bachelors degrees
3 are working on Masters degrees
2 students are in law school
2 students have published

Since 2002, with overwhelming support from the San Diego community over $330,000 has been raised and awarded in 305 scholarships to 211 students.

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